A New Year

The past three weeks of 2009 have been interesting with the typical ups and downs of everyday life. The kids are off to a pretty good start on school following the holiday period. Below is an update of the kids:

Jeremy is preparing for college. He took the ACT again to see if he could bump his score up just a wee bit and he did - one point (28). He did very good and his overall score is almost twice what I made in 1980. More than enough to get in any state university. I don't think he gets that from me! He wants to get a degree in computer engineering and seems interested in completing his degree at University of Alabama - Huntsville. I have requested only three things of him; (a)attend Auburn-Montgomery (local) for one or two semesters then transfer, (b) Take only 12 hours per semester the first year and, (c) after completing his degree - work for himself or the Lord (don't go to work for ABCD, Incorporated). He is an intelligent kid and will do well.

Christina is continuing her passion for writing and photography. She spent her money in December and purchased a very expensive camera (enough to make me choke). She has her own website where she makes her prints available. At the 2009 Horse Fair in Montgomery, she had her own booth and offered her services. She had several inquiries and we will wait to see what happens.

My little Sarah is growing up. She is such a delightful young woman and always worried about the feelings of those around her. She and Polina are very close, but at the same time, they both have their own interest. She is all girl and getting into the nail polish and color coordinating her clothes. She has come so far in her education just in the past 12 months. Things she struggled with January 2008, she breezes through now.

Polina is finally putting on weight and getting meat on her bones. She is not quite as picky over her food as she was six months ago. When we arrived in Vladivostok in May, we learned she had gotten her ears pierced. Some less than honest person replaced a gold setting with a cheaper setting. End result - infected ears. We had the earrings removed when we got home (no one in Russia knew how). The holes sealed and healed. For Christmas, she got them pierced again with gold settings. She is working to maintain her Russian by reading her Russian New Testament and using Rosetta Stone.

Dima is our little energy machine. He is as sweet as he can be and full of energy - I mean really full! He will walk over completely unexpected and grab my leg and say, "I love you Pop". He can come up with some dandy stories that were obviously dreams. We make him think about his comments to make him understand that these things did not and could not have really happened. He has improved his ability to control his anger so much, it is just hard to explain. He will still occasionally slip and hit one of his sisters because of something that happened, but it is no where near the frequency that it used to happen. Most significantly, the anger is not there any more. Now when he does lash out, it is just a reaction. They had gone to a party at Christmas for homeschoolers and a little boy snatched something out of his hand. Dawn saw it happen and was wondering of she could grab him before he reacted. He handled himself very well and just moved on to something else.

Nastya is our drama queen. She loves to sing and dance and keeps us in stitches. She will not allow you to hug her neck when saying "goodnight" or "goodbye". If you try, you will get slapped. Now you can hug on her any other time you want without a problem, but she has NEVER liked goodbye.

Well, that's about it. Issues at work have allowed me to help a non-profit group and their efforts to help folks around the world. If things work out well, it may open some doors to allow us to help orphans around the world who are near and dear to us.

Take care and God Bless -